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The 2015 World Orienteering Championships (WOC) start in five days time, this year being held in the scenic Highlands of Scotland with the Event Centre in Inverness. Fifty nations in all will be represented at the Championships, with Cameroon, Egypt, Nepal and Uganda attending for the first time.

This will be the third time that the Championships have been held in Scotland, the previous two being in 1976 and 1999. One of the venues best remembered from back in 1976, Darnaway, will be used this year for the Middle Distance and Relay, whilst Glen Affric will be the venue for the Long Distance race just as it was in 1999.

This will be the second year with the new WOC format, which includes a Sprint Relay and only one qualification race, for the individual Sprint. The Sprint Relay takes place on Saturday in Nairn, a small town with a complex network of small streets and alleyways.

The curtain-raiser for the Championships is the Sprint Qualification on Friday in another small town, Forres. The Opening Ceremony is on Saturday in Nairn just before the Sprint Relay. Day three is also Sprint – the Sprint Final, again in Forres. The two races at Darnaway are on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, and the last race is the Long Distance in Glen Affric on Friday week.

More than 800 volunteers will be helping stage the Championships, which will be televised live in Scotland along with transmission to several other countries. Alongside WOC, the open Scottish 6-Days event has attracted more than 5,200 participants, who will be supporting their national teams in the WOC arenas when not running themselves.

The televised output from all the Finals together with a dedicated commentary will be presented on IOF LiveCenter on the IOF website for just 18 Euros for a ticket covering the whole of WOC, or 10 Euros per day. Live results and GPS tracking will also be available; for full details see the WOC website www.woc2015.org and the LiveCenter link on this Home Page.

Reports, leading results and interviews will be posted on this Home Page after each race.